The Already But Not Yet
Reflections on Ephesians 4.1-7, 11-16
A Celebration of New Ministry for Marion Wong
17 December 2018
The Parish of Saint Matthias and Saint Luke
Ephesians 4.1-7, 11-16
4.1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
When I was ordained in 1981, I was appointed Deacon to the Bishops of Colorado. My responsibilities included planning the visits of the Diocesan and Suffragan Bishops, communicating with the ordained and lay leadership regarding matters of pastoral concern and doing whatever else the Bishops wanted me to do. Those of us who are ordained are familiar with that wonderful line in the ordination service --- ‘And other such duties as may be assigned to you from time to time.’
One morning I received a call from Saint Luke’s Hospital in Denver. In those days the Hospital was closely connected with the Episcopal Church and had its own chaplain. It just so happened that the chaplain was away on holiday and a patient had requested communion. Not knowing who to call, the nurse called the Diocesan Office and I agreed to go. I admit that I was a bit annoyed. The chaplain should have called me before leaving so that we could arrange coverage by one of the nearby parishes. So here I was, in midst of preparing a major budget presentation, winging off to the Hospital to do someone else’s job.
The patient’s name was Eulalia and, in the years to come, she and I would become friends. But that day all I saw was an elderly woman who was taking me away from my ‘real work’. I introduced myself, ‘Richard Leggett, Deacon to the Bishops.’ She didn’t seem too impressed, but we chatted for a while before I began the communion service.
Everything was going fine until I got to the Lord’s Prayer. I heard myself say, ‘And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to say . . . . ‘ Then I could not remember any of the words --- traditional or contemporary. We stumbled along, Eulalia being unsure of where this confused young deacon was going. Communion was shared. I muttered some sort of concluding prayer and sat in silence. Eulalia looked me up and down a couple of times. She reached over, patted my hand and said, ‘It’s okay, Father Richard. You’ll get better at this!’
A few years later when I officiated at Eulalia’s funeral, I remembered what she had said to me when we had first met. Hers was a difficult funeral, not just because a wonderful woman had died after many years of battling cancer. Hers was a difficult funeral because her family, whom she loved fiercely, had split over the ordination of women and sat on opposite sides of the church, glaring at each other. I remember preaching about how we are already one in Christ through our baptism but not yet as truly one as God wants us to be. We are, I said, a work in progress. Eulalia had taught me that baptism and ordination were only beginnings. I still had much to learn and I would always be in the process of becoming who I am as a Christian and who I am as a priest. And she was right.
This ‘already but not yet’ is at the heart of what the writer of the Letter to the Ephesians is trying to say to the Christians at Ephesus and, some two thousand years later, to the Christians who gather here tonight to celebrate the new ministry of Marion Wong as Rector of the Parish of Saint Matthias and Saint Luke. In the first part of tonight’s reading we hear that we are already one because
· there is one body and one Spirit,
· there is one hope of our calling,
· there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and
· there is one God and Father of all.
But this unity is not yet fulfilled because of the divisions that continue to exist not only between Christians and non-Christians and between differing Christian communions. Sometimes divisions exist within congregations and the unity which is already ours in Christ falls under the shadow of rivalries, hurt feelings and unrealized expectations. Sometimes we fail to know we are one in Christ because we cannot see beyond the boundaries of our congregations and so we cannot see the riches of God’s gifts poured out, not only on each one of us, but on our sisters and brothers who are members of the same body and who share the same hope.
Tonight we gather to do something more than celebrate the beginning of a new relationship between Marion and this Parish of Saint Matthias and Saint Luke. We gather to reaffirm that we are already one in Christ and that, through the gifts that the Spirit bestows on individuals and communities of faith, we are growing into that unity, so that the whole world may see ‘that things which were cast down are being raised up and that things which had grown old are being made new, by [Christ] through whom all things were made’. [1] What happens in the days, weeks, months and years ahead here on 49thAvenue between Oak and Cambie matters, not just to this congregation, but to all of us, who strive as disciples of Christ to proclaim the good news of God in a society whose ears are sometimes deaf to our voices and whose eyes are sometimes clouded to the signs of God’s kingdom already present among us.
God needs us. God needs this congregation of disciples as witnesses to the unity of the human family, a present reality and a future hope. But we will not ‘get better’ as Eulalia once promised me, if we are not committed to each congregation as if it were our own.
· And so I ask every baptized Christian who is not a member of Saint Matthias and Saint Luke to stand. Will you offer, as far as lies within you, your gifts to the people of Saint Matthias and Saint Luke so that this congregation may grow in the love and service of Christ? If so, please say, ‘We will.’ ‘We will.’ Please remain standing.
· Now I ask every member of the Parish of Saint Matthias and Saint Luke to stand. Look around you. You are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. You are not alone nor are you asked to stand alone. Will you, as far as lies within you, continue to grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ, not for your own sake alone, but for the sake of the community where you have been called to serve? If so, please say, ‘We will.’ ‘We will.’ Please remain standing.
· Marion, I ask you to stand. Look around you. You are surrounded by disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, both from this Parish and beyond. You are not alone nor are you asked to stand alone. Will you, as far as lies within you, used your gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry in this congregation and in this community you have been called to lead? If so, please say, ‘I will.’ ‘I will.’ Now you all may be seated.
‘Well done’, I can hear Eulalia say to us. But do not forget that tonight is but a beginning. We are one in Christ. We are one in the ministry entrusted to us by a loving God, But we are not yet fully who and what we are called to become. We still have a ways to go in our journey of faith and ministry. But we will get better as we go along together.
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